PDE 

1801 

9 


i Congress, 
t Session. 

£T : 


HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 


; 


Report 
No. 457. 


V 2 


ENDING THE NATURALIZATION LAWS AND CREATING A BUREAU 
OF COAST GUARD PATROL IN THE BUREAU OF IMMIGRATION. 


November 8, 1919. — Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of 
the Union and ordered to be printed. 


l\»S. , 

Mr. Johnson of Washington, from f he s Committee on Immigration 
and Naturalization, submitted the following 


REPORT. 

[To accompany H. R. 10404.] 



The Committee on Immigration and Naturalization of the House 
of Representatives reports H. R. 10404, a bill to amend the natu¬ 
ralization laws of the United States and to create a division of Coast 
Guard Patrol in the Bureau of Immigration, and recommends its 
passage. 

The bill makes numerous amendments to present naturalization 
laws. One of the provisions of the bill, if enacted into law, will go 
far toward the Americanization and naturalization of aliens now in 
the United States to the extent of at least 11,000,000, or 1 in 10 of 
the entire population. 

Certain provisions of the bill will assist to citizenship those aliens 
in the United States who are rightfully entitled to be “with us and 
of us" as a true part of our great democratic Republic, and other 
provisions will make it practically impossible for those who come 
among us understanding neither the fundamentals of our system of 
Government nor our language to join us as citizens. 

The committee believes that the education of aliens has been 
neglected in years past. It notes with much interest the advance 
that has been made under the small encouragement given in a pro¬ 
vision of the naturalization act of May 9, 1918 (less than 18 months 
ago), and believes that an extension of that service as provided in 
section 4 of H. R. 10404 will prove to be of great value. The plan 
proposed has the merit of being economical and effective. The scope 
is enlarged to include adult illiterate Americans, and is recommended 
because it makes use of the public schools of the country. The 
machinery is already in operation. . 

It is believed that this Americanization plan, together with the 
plan for certificates of citizenship (described later in this report), 
will result in the enrollment and registration of a large proportion 







xJ n 
I 

2 AMENDING THE NATURALIZ ATION LAWS. 

of the alien population. Thus, with the aid of a system of registra¬ 
tion of aliens arriving in the future (such legislation being proposed 
in an immigration bill which the committee hope" t.r* repo^ t an 
early date) the number of unregistered, undiges aliens in the 
United States will be greatly reduced, so that \ jse regarded as 
undesirable can be ascertained and proceeded against under our 
deportation laws. 

AN OMNIBUS BILL. 

H. R. 10404 amends three sections of present naturalization laws 
in numerous important particulars, adds new subdivisions to section 
4 of the naturalization laws, and creates a badly needed land and 
coast patrol to the Immigration Service for the purpose of preventing 
surreptitious entry of aliens. 

Your committee has thought best to divide its work and to report 
immigration and naturalization bills separately. A bill amending 
and revising the immigration laws is to be reported later it is expected. 
H. R. 10404, except one section, pertains entirely to naturalization, 
and is in the nature of an omnibus bill. It carries leg’slative pro¬ 
visions embraced in H. R. 1742 and H. R. 13212, by Mr. Ballinger; 
H. R. 3746, by Mr. Volsted; H. R. 5701, by Mr. Burdick; H. R. 6233, 
H. R. 9949, and H. R. 10034, by Mr. Johnson of Washington; H. R. 
6804 and H. R. 9930, by Mr. Rogers; H. R. 9037 and H. R. 9314, by 
Mr. Voigt; H. R. 9174, by Mr. Hudspeth; H. R. 9416, by Mr. Lufkin; 
and H. R. 3911, by Mr. Welty. 

PROVISIONS BRIEFLY STATED. 

The bill requires ability to read and speak the English language as 
a prerequisite to naturalization. 

It requires children and wives of naturalized aliens to take the oath 
of allegiance in open court in order to acquire American citizenship. 

It extends the Americanization activities of the Bureau of Naturali¬ 
zation to illiterate native adults and recognizes civic, educational, 
community, racial, and other organizations in this work, under the 
direction of the public-school authorities, and authorizes appropria¬ 
tion of $500,000 therefor. 

It authorizes the issuance of United States citizenship certificates 
to the wife and children of the husband and father, and provides for 
a fee of $1 for each certificate. 

It corrects certain naturalization laws enacted during the Great War. 

It gives recognition to those aliens discharged under honorable con¬ 
ditions who refused to claim exemption from military service during 
the war and who were not included in previous acts of Congress. 

It recognizes the services in armies of the Allies by aliens resident 
in the United States, and permits such service to be substituted in 
lieu of continuous residence. 

It prohibits filing declaration of intention for purposes of creating 
voters in States where aliens exercise the franchise. 

It simplifies naturalization proceedings, in so far as they can be 
simplified by the elimination of unnecessary restrictions of the present 

law. 



Do *1' 

19 1913 


AMENDING THE NATURALIZATION LAWS. 


3 


PROOF OF RESIDENCE. 

The committee is of the opinion that as inasmuch as the United 
States is willing to naturalize those who can meet the conditions, the 
method should be neither cumbersome, expensive, nor made difficult 
by unnecessary restrictions. Therefore several provisions of this bill 
are to perfect certain sections concerning proof of residence. 

Before proceeding to an explanation m detail of the provisions of 
the bill, the committee desires to call attention to statistics and other 
matters brought out at hearings held on various bills concerning 
naturalization, as follows: 

[From statements of Hon. Raymond F. Crist, Director of Naturalization.] 

I. 

INCOME FROM NATURALIZATION FEES. 

Foreigners who have sought American citizenship have turned into the Treasury 
$4,745,436.79 in naturalization fees in the past 13 years, and the cost of all this Govern¬ 
ment activity has been but $3,923,447.67. This makes a surplus of $821,989.02 which 
has been paid to the Government by friendly foreigners through the Naturalization 
Bureau over all appropriations made for that bureau. 

In nearly 3,000 cities and towns the school authorities have pledged their schools for 
educating the adult foreigners. There are thousands in the citizenship classes of the 
public schools. They are of all ages from 18 years to over 60 years. 

H. It. 10404 will bring the illiterate Americans into these classes, and in 10 years 
will eradicate illiteracy and result in reducing the cost of administering the naturaliza¬ 
tion law and this educational work to less than the revenues the Government will then 
derive from the naturalization fees. 

Under the plan of this till this great educational undertaking will, therefore, at no 
time be an expense upon the taxpayers of the country; it will always be self-main- 
taining and revenue-producing. 

II. 

PROGRESS OF AMERICANIZATION MOVEMENT. 

The Americanization movement began from a realization of the fact that fully 75 
per cent of the average number of 200,000 aliens who are annually admitted to citizen¬ 
ship have been found to be unaware of the responsil ilities of American citizenship 
and unequipped to discharge those duties and responsil ilities. 

The average of 200,000 admissions to citizenship annually refer both to those by 
direct application and by derivation through the provisions of the law which confer 
citizenship upon the wife and children born abroad of the petitioner. The wife and 
the children who are under 21 years of age derive their citizenship in that way.. These 
new male citizens have been found so deficient in their understanding of our institu¬ 
tions of Government and our language as to be unable to serve on juries or to mingle 
with other American citizens because of a lack of understanding of our language, of 
which they have no comprehensive mastery. The women who have thus derived 
citizenship may as an entirety be referred to as having never spoken a sentence In 
our language and as having less regard for our institutions of Government than when 
they left the lands of their nativity and turned their faces toward the setting sun. 
The ideals they then entertained were based upon report of America as a land of 
freedom for women. Their utter isolation from America and American contacts in 
the distinctly foreign atmosphere of their homes where foreign languages alone are 
spoken, leaves them in a position to gain an entirely false notion of America. These 
deriv ative citizens are having the reins of Government placed in their hands by the 
extension throughout wider areas of the right of suffrage to women. 


4 


AMENDING THE NATURALIZATION LAWS. 


III. 

UNNATURALIZED FOREIGNERS IN THE UNITED STATES. 

The Chairman. What is your estimate of the number of unnaturalized aliens in 
the United State3? 

Mr. Crist. I think there are in the neighborhood of 11,000,000 who are not citizens; 
there are probably 2,000,000 and maybe 2,500,000 of that 11,000,000, who have 
declared their iutention, leaving in the neighborhood of 8,500,000 to 9,000,000 who 
have taken no steps toward American citizenship. 

The Chairman. And we are putting them into citizenship at the average rate of 
200,000 a year? 

Mr. Crist. The average has increased in the last two years. For example, from 
July 1, 1918, to .Tune 30, 1919, there were 346,827 aliens who declared their intention 
as against 137,229 in the year ended June 30, 1908. 


IV. 

Foreign born applying for citizenship through the Bureau of Naturalization. 


Years. 

Net immi¬ 
gration. 1 

Total 

incoming 

immigra¬ 

tion. 

Declara¬ 
tions filed. 

Petitions 

filed. 

Total 

candidates. 

Total 
applying 
for citizen¬ 
ship. 2 

1907. 

1,007,163 
200,867 
542,843 
817,619 
512,085 
401,863 
815,303 
769,276 
50,070 
125,941 
216, 498 
18,585 
20, 790 

1,285,349 
782,870 
751,786 
1,041,570 
878,587 
838,172 
1,197,392 
1,218,480 
326,700 
298,826 
295, 403 
110,618 
237, 021 

3 73,723 
137,229 
145,794 
167,226 
186,157 
169,142 
181,632 
214,016 
245,815 
207,935 
438, 748 
335,069 
346,827 




1908. 




1909. 




1910. 




1911. 




1912. 




1913. 




1914. 




1915. 




1916. 




1917. 




1918. 

174,409 
234,903 

509,478 
581,730 

1,082,640 

1,236,176 

1919. 



1 Represents the additions to the foreign population after deducting the outgoing and nonimmigrant 
incoming aliens from the total incoming immigration. 

2 Including derivative citizens. 

3 9 months only. 

Field of annual contact of the Federal Government and the cooperating public schools with the immi¬ 
grant population seeking citizenship, compared with annual immigration to this country. This contact 
can only be effected through the division of citizenship training of the Bureau of Naturalization. 

Years of experience and counts repeatedly made show an average of 1.125 of citizens derive citizenship 
through the petitioner. 


PARAGRAPHS OF BILL EXPLAINED. 


CERTIFICATES OF ARRIVAL DISPENSED WITH. 

The first paragraph, section 1 of this bill, repeals the requirement 
for a certificate of arrival to be filed by the alien at the time he peti¬ 
tions for naturalization. Thirteen years of administrative experi¬ 
ence has derived no benefit from this provision, and its repeal will re¬ 
move an unnecessary obstacle in the way to naturalization of the 
alien and in no way lessen the effectiveness of the law. 

PROTECTION OF THE FRANCHISE. 

Paragraph 2, page 2, at line 7, makes it unlawful for a declaration 
of intention to be filed for the purpose of making voters in any of the 
four States where aliens are entitled to the franchise, by prohibiting 
the filing during 30 days preceding any election. These States are 
Indiana, Missouri, Arkansas, and Texas. 









































AMENDING THE NATURALIZATION LAWS. 


5 


RECOGNITION OF LOYAL ALIEN SOLDIERS. 


Paragraph 3, page 3, at line 17, waives the requirement of con¬ 
tinuous residence to those patriotic alien declarants or aliens who re¬ 
sided in the United States prior to the commencement of the war and 
who returned to their sovereignties ‘to enter the military or naval 
service against the Central Powers. This privilege is extended only 
in those cases where the aliens proceed to complete their naturali¬ 
zation within two years after returning to the United States, and 
provided they return on or before July 1, 1920. 

ALIEN UNITED STATES SOLDIERS PREVIOUSLY OVERLOOKED NOW RECOGNIZED. 

Paragraph 4, page 3, at line 19, makes provision for those aliens 
who waived exemption under the selective service act, but who 
through some physical disability were not ordered to the front, but 
were honorably discharged without doing actual military service. 
Provision has been made for the naturalization of all other aliens 
who were willing to serve this country. These aliens were uninten¬ 
tionally overlooked heretofore. 

DECLARANTS SENT ABROAD BY UNITED STATES. 

Paragraph 5, page 4, at line 12, relieves alien declarants selected 
by the Federal Government for service abroad from proving con¬ 
tinuous residence within the United States during the five-year 
period. 

AMENDMENT OF PETITIONS ALLOWED. 

Section 2 adds two subdivisions, 14 and 15, to section 4 of the 
act of June 29, 1906. Subdivision 14 permits of the amendment of 
petitions for naturalization and declarations of intention in the 
same manner accorded all other judicial bills and pleadings. This 
does not remove any restriction which the present law places upon 
the admission to citizenship. 

CERTIFICATES TO DERIVATIVE CITIZENS. 

Subdivision 15, page 6, at line 1, in the first paragraph, provides 
a certificate of United States citizenship that shall be legal evidence 
for those aliens acquiring American citizenship in other ways than 
by direct naturalization. Those who are embraced within these 
classes are American Indians severing their tribal relations and 
becoming American citizens, the minor children born abroad of a 
naturalized American citizen, the wife of a naturalized American 
citizen, the natural born unmarried minor children of a widow who 
marries an American citizen, the foreign-born adopted children 
under 18 years of age. All of these who belong to these classes must 
be residing within the United States to derive American citizenship. 

REQUIREMENT TO READ AND WRITE ENGLISH AND OATH OF ALLEGIANCE. 

Paragraph 2, page 6, at line 11, requires the appearance in open 
court, giving evidence of ability to speak and read the English lan¬ 
guage, and of attachment to the principles of the Constitution of 


6 


AMENDING THE NATURALIZATION LAWS. 


the United States, the renunciation of all foreign allegiance, and the 
taking of the oath of allegiance to the United States before citizen¬ 
ship may be acquired by any in the special classes referred to. 

PRESERVES CITIZENSHIP HERETOFORE ACQUIRED. 

Paragraph 7, page 8, at line 9, contains a proviso which will prevent 
those who shall have acquired the rights and privileges of American 
citizenship prior to the approval of this act from having those rights 
and privileges disturbed. 


PENAL CODE APPLIED. 

The remaining paragraphs of this subdivision apply the penal laws 
of the United States relating to certificates of naturalization to the 
unlawful use of these certificates, and require the fees to be accounted 
for and deposited in the Treasury of the United States in the manner 
prescribed by section 13 of the act of June 29, 1906. 

SIMPLIFIED METHOD OF PROVING RESIDENCE. 

Section 3, page 9, at line 7, effects a simplification of the method 
of proving residence by the alien. It permits residence outside of 
the county in which the alien files his petition for naturalization to 
be established by depositions, even though that residence be within 
the State in which the alien petitioner resides. In large industrial 
centers it permits residence in two places in the same county to be 
established by two sets of witnesses where the alien is, by reason of 
removal from one part of the county to another, unable to find two 
American citizens who have known him during all of his residence in 
these various parts of the county. 

AMERICANIZATION PLAN. 

Section 4, page 10, at line 11, extends authority of the Division of 
Citizenship Training of-the Bureau of Naturalization. This division 
is now promoting the public schools in the work of instructing for¬ 
eigners who are candidates for naturalization. It has effected a 
reorganization of virtually the entire public-school systems of the 
United States, so that for the first time in the history of the Nation 
provision is made for adults to secure an education in the common- 
school studies without being obliged to attend classes primarily 
organized for children. These classrooms have not only been 
attended by foreigners who are candidates for naturalization, but 
they have been sought by illiterate adult Americans eager to over¬ 
come their illiteracy. Reports from school authorities and evidence 
submitted to the committee showed 4 per cent of those attending 
these classes to be Americans. The six leading nationalities were 
Italians, 9.4 per cent; Poles, 8 per cent; Portuguese, 4.3 per cent; 
Americans, 4 per cent; French, 4 per cent; andGerman-Russians, 3.6 per 
cent; out of a total of 78 nationalities found in these classes. All of 
this organization of the public schools has been effected at no cost to 
the citizen taxpayer. It negatives the assertion that funds from the 
Treasury of the United States are a prerequisite to the performance 
by the public schools of any community of their educational duties. 


AMENDING THE NATURALIZATION LAWS. 


7 


In every State of the United States and in Alaska citizenship classes 
have been organized by the public schools, not primarily for the 
American adult illiterate hut primarily for the foreigner at the 
instance of the Division of Citizenship Training of the Department of 
Labor. This has been made possible of accomplishment through a 
Government agency solely because there are over a million foreign 
who annually come into contact with the United States Government 
through the Bureau of Naturalization. The committee believes by 
authorizing this bureau to promote the organization of the public 
schools to include in their work the adult American illiterate that it 
will secure the attendance of the illiterate adult Americans upon 
these citizenship classes. It believes that the American adult 
illiterate should receive the invitation of the Government to attend 
these classes in citizenship training. It believes also that this 
influence will be the deciding element to prevail upon them to tak'' 
the step which will mean their mental, bodily, and spiritual re 
mation. The salutary effects that will come from the mn 
together of these two currents of American humanity, the f 
horn and tEe native born, under the supervision of the 
Government and the public schools in an endeavor to overc 
handicaps of their earlier environment will go to the very fund 
of those disturbances which are the outgrowth of ignorance. 

The committee believes that in view of present demam 
the United States Treasury this method of dealing with the 
tional problem of the country should be adopted, because 
truly economical, and because it has been proved successful. ± 
other plan must from its nature be an experiment and upon a , 
costly basis adding millions of dollars to the burden of the t 
payers annually, and perpetuate an organization costing millio 
annually until it can be determined whether the experiment wi 
ultimately prove itself to be an expression of the democratic ideals 
of the country or a system which may mean a departure from those 
ideals of equality which have heretofore characterized our American 
education. Through this bureau this section authorizes the dis¬ 
semination of information regarding the institutions of the United 
States so as to stimulate loyalty to those institutions. The com¬ 
mittee knows no better agency than the public schools to accomplish 
this work. There are, however, many organizations—commercial, 
educational, racial, and others—that are now aiding the Division of 
Citizenship Training in this patriotic work and assisting in organizing 
the public schools for their wider use in imparting the fundamentals 
of education and civic training. 

This section proposes the extension of this influence to the residents 
of the Panama Canal Zone. The time may come when Congress 
may desire to extend naturalization jurisdiction to the United 
States district court in the Canal Zone and the committee believes 
that the best results will be attained if the residents of the Canal 
Zone are prepared in advance for those responsibilities by becoming 
educated both in our language and in our institutions of Government, 

READING AND WRITING PROVISION. 

Section 5, page 11, at line 10, amends section 8 of the present 
naturalization law. It adds the requirement to read the English 
language to that of speaking it as at present required. It defers the 


Ill 




LENDING THE NATURALIZATION LAWS. 


.. requirement for one year after the approval of the 

0 012 321 240 A © ot make the disability or the failure to speak the 
English language a ground for the dismissal of the petition for natu-. 
ralization but for the continuance of the petition to enable the peti¬ 
tioner and those deriving citizenship through him to overcome this 
disability in the public schools which are now available all over j 
the land. 


AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATION. 

Section 6, page 12, at line 1, recommends the appropriation of : 
$500,000 to give force and effect to the foregoing provisions and 
sections of the act. 

DIVISION OF PATROL GUARD. 

Section 7, page 12, commencing at line 10, provides for the estab- I 
nent of the division of patrol guard in the Bureau of Immigration 
Department of Labor to enforce the provisions of the immi- 
i laws and in part the act of May 22, 1918, as amended. The 
/ for this is well known to the committee by those who have 
1 before it and shown that aliens are surreptitiously crossing 
rs of the country in violation of the act referred to in the ! 
v ons. It recommends the appropriation of $250,000 to give j 
d effect to this section. Thousands have entered at un- j 
. points along the Mexican border recently. Dr. John W. j 
n, medical officer at the El Paso public health station, reports I 
hundreds of the most undesirable classes are entering daily, I 
'ug a serious mena.ce to the health of the country. Other re- 
6 show that liquor smugglers and smugglers of aliens work to¬ 
ner; that many aliens are smuggled across the Canadian waters;! 
at the waters of Lower California, Puget Sound, and Great Lakes j 
nould be patrolled. 

REPEAL OF SECTION 1994. 

Section 8 provides for the repeal of section 1994 of the Revised! 
Statutes, which is embodied in the bill at lines 1, 2, and 3, on page 8,1 
with the proviso that any woman who shall hereafter be married toj 
a citizen of the United States is required to take the oath of allegiance. [ 
Section 8 also provides for the repeal of all acts or parts of acts in¬ 
consistent with the provisions of this act. 


o 














